Accessibility Statement

1. Our commitment

Blackwood & Slaughter is committed to making www.blackwoodandslaughter.com usable by as many people as possible, including people who use assistive technology such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, speech recognition software, switch devices or keyboard navigation alone.

We regard this as a professional obligation rather than a courtesy. A person seeking counsel in a serious matter should not be obstructed by the design of a web page.

As a provider of services in England and Wales, the firm is under a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments so that a disabled person is not placed at a substantial disadvantage in accessing our services. That duty is anticipatory: it requires us to think about barriers before anyone encounters them, rather than waiting to be asked. This statement records how we try to discharge it online, and section 5 sets out the alternative routes by which the same information and the same access to a solicitor can be obtained.

2. Target standard

Our target standard is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2, Level AA, published by the World Wide Web Consortium. WCAG defines requirements for making web content more accessible to people with a wide range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning and neurological disabilities.

We assess this site as partially conformant with WCAG 2.2 Level AA. Partially conformant means that most of the content meets the standard, but that some parts, described in section 4 below, do not yet fully do so. We prefer to state this plainly rather than claim a conformance we have not verified across every page and every assistive technology.

3. Measures we have taken

The following measures are built into the design and the code of this site.

• Semantic HTML. Pages are built from meaningful elements: headings in a logical order, landmarks for the header, navigation, main content and footer, lists marked up as lists, and form controls associated with visible labels.
• Keyboard navigation. All interactive elements, including the navigation, the mobile menu and every form field, can be reached and operated using the keyboard alone, in a logical order. The mobile menu can be dismissed with the Escape key.
• Visible focus indicators. A high-contrast bronze focus outline is applied to every focusable element, with an offset so that it remains legible against the dark background. We have not suppressed the browser focus ring without replacing it.
• Colour contrast. Text and background combinations are chosen to meet the WCAG contrast thresholds for body text and for large text. Colour is never the sole means of conveying information.
• Reduced motion. The site honours the “reduced motion” setting in your operating system. Where that preference is set, animations, transitions and the scroll reveal effects are disabled and content is displayed immediately in its final state.
• Text alternatives. Meaningful images carry descriptive alternative text. Decorative images, background layers and ornamental marks are given empty alternative text or are hidden from assistive technology so that they do not clutter the reading experience.
• Skip link. A “Skip to content” link is the first focusable element on every page, allowing keyboard and screen reader users to bypass the navigation.
• Responsive and zoomable layout. The layout reflows to a single column on small screens and supports zoom to at least 200 per cent without loss of content or functionality. We do not disable pinch zoom on touch devices.
• Forms that explain themselves. Enquiry form fields have persistent visible labels, required fields are marked in text as well as by symbol, validation errors are described in words next to the field concerned, and status messages are announced to assistive technology through a live region.
• Predictable behaviour. Content does not move, refresh or change automatically, and no element flashes at a rate capable of triggering seizures.

4. Known limitations

We would rather tell you what is not yet right than let you discover it. As at the date of this statement, we are aware of the following limitations.

• Third-party embedded content. Where a page embeds material hosted by a third party, such as a video player, a map or a hosted document viewer, we do not control its markup and it may not be fully conformant with WCAG 2.2 Level AA. We raise such issues with the supplier concerned and, where a supplier will not remedy them, we look for an alternative.
• PDF documents. Some documents published on the site, particularly older publications and materials prepared by third parties, may not be fully tagged for accessibility. Newer documents are prepared as tagged, structured PDFs. Any document that is not accessible to you will be supplied in an alternative format on request, at no charge.
• Decorative background imagery. The site makes extensive use of photographic backgrounds and a fine grain overlay. These are hidden from assistive technology and do not carry information, but in some display conditions they may reduce perceived contrast. If you find any passage of text difficult to read, please tell us and we will adjust it.
• Older assistive technology. We test against current versions of the major screen readers and browsers. Behaviour on significantly older combinations may differ.

5. Alternative means of access

If any part of this site is inaccessible to you, you do not have to use it. All of the information published here, and any document made available through it, can be provided by another route. We can:

• discuss it with you over email, at whatever length is useful;
• send it to you as plain text in the body of an email;
• supply a document in large print, or in another accessible electronic format; or
• send it to you by post.

We will also take an enquiry entirely by post, so that nobody is required to complete the online form in order to reach a solicitor at this firm. If you need an adjustment we have not thought of, ask for it and we will consider it seriously. There is no charge for any of this.

6. Reporting a barrier

We welcome reports of accessibility problems. If you encounter a barrier on this site, please tell us. It is genuinely useful to know the page address, what you were trying to do, the browser and assistive technology you were using, and what happened instead. We take reports by email and by post; the firm publishes no telephone number.

• Email: counsel@blackwoodandslaughter.com, marked for the attention of the Accessibility Contact
• Post: Accessibility Contact, Blackwood & Slaughter, 1 Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom

We aim to acknowledge every report and provide a substantive response within five working days. Where a fix will take longer than that, we will tell you what we intend to do, when we expect to do it, and how you can obtain the information you need in the meantime.

7. Formal complaints

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may escalate the matter in writing to the Managing Partner, Blackwood & Slaughter, 1 Mayfair Place, Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ, United Kingdom, or by email to counsel@blackwoodandslaughter.com marked “Accessibility Complaint”. A partner who has not been involved in the original response will review the matter and reply to you in writing, ordinarily within twenty working days.

Raising a complaint with us does not affect any other right or remedy available to you, including your rights under the Equality Act 2010 and, if you are a client of the firm, your right to complain about the service you have received.

8. Assessment and review

This site has been assessed by the firm through a combination of automated accessibility testing, manual keyboard testing, and review of the markup against the WCAG 2.2 success criteria. Accessibility is treated as part of the review of every change we publish, and this statement is reviewed at least annually.

9. Date of this statement

This statement was prepared on 28 March 2026 and reflects the state of the site on that date. It replaces any earlier statement.